Brett King, best-selling author of BANK 2.0 and BANK 3.0, renowned public speaker and advisor to some of the world’s biggest financial services organizations and leading brands, talks about the Future of Payments @ Payments Source (extract below):

Payments companies are pressured to respond to technology that’s relatively early in development but is changing consumer use patterns, said King.

“In the payments business, there’s a ton of history and legacy,” he said. The historical artifacts of the industry include account numbers, passbooks, and debit cards. “We think that history is protection, a barrier to entry for disruptors. But there are other industries that have gone through these changes as well…with mobile, you can get feedback at the point of sale every time you spend.”

Traditional payment enablers such as financial institutions are watching startups such as Square and LevelUp ply mobile technology and social tools to tap into changing consumer behaviors, he said.

King’s company, Moven, attempts to adapt to these changes by focusing more on the customer relationship than the value of specific technology, he says. “Whether you are paying with a secure element or a contactless sticker the objective is to change a person’s connection to their money.”

Moven’s app is designed to provide more feedback than consumers would get from paying with a plastic card. Moven also encourages people to save money and set goals for saving that are tied to payment transactions.

“Using plastic that tells you if you are approved for a transaction and nothing else is just dumb. There’s no context,” King said.

When using the Moven app, consumers see the present purchase, the amount of money spent at that retailer in the past month, as well as money spent in the entire category—along with available balance.

“We’re not telling you if that behavior is good or bad, but you know if it’s healthy or not,” King said.